Light Italian sex comedy with Claudia Cardinale and a huge star cast from ItaloCinema
This film is by Marcello Fondato (1924-2008), also known as "Certo, certissimo...anzi probabile" (in English: Sure, quite certain...downright probable) and "Diary of a Telephone Operator". From 1969, but was only released in West German cinemas on January 25, 1973.
The telephone operator Marta (Claudia Cardinale) and the hairdresser Nanda (Catherine Spaak) live together in an apartment and are constantly looking for men. Later marriage not excluded! Marta, the more warm-hearted of the two graces, is also quite successful and always drags down real great guys (John Phillip Law, Robert Hoffmann, GOLDEN GLOBE nominee Antonio Sabato (a few years later also as a strong bully alongside Brad Harris in "Zwei Schlitzohren in der gelben Hölle / Two Rascals in the Yellow Hell" (1974). ) convincing), which Nanda, who is really a bit nasty when it comes to such things, then just tries it out for her. At some point the good Marta gets fed up, looks for her own apartment and even marries the likeable Pietro (Nino Castelnuovo ), which of course she initially hides from her man-devouring former bosom friend. Then one day a friend of her husband's (Lars Bloch) comes to visit, who sets up home with the newlyweds. Now Marta needs her devious friend again to get rid of the unwanted one to keep the intruder busy elsewhere. Will that work?
This forerunner of the commedias sexy all'italiana, which was very successful in the 1970s, doesn't really take off despite the huge star cast. The actors try very hard, but good entertainment only comes to a limited extent. Claudia Cardinale, who has a very old-fashioned hairstyle in this film, unfortunately falls short of her potential. A surprise is Catherine Spaak, who was also seen two years later in "Die neunschwänzige Katze / The Cat of Nine Tails" by Dario Argento, who is very convincing in her role as a devious friend. The three male objects of desire all do their job well, although it is surprising that GOLDEN GLOBE nominee John Phillip Law ("Barbarella" and "Danger: Diabolik"), the actually biggest star of the three, got the stupidest role. Born in 1936, Nino Castelnuovo is known from classics such as "Rocco and his brothers" (1960), "The Umbrellas of Cherbourg" (1964) and "The English Patient" (1996). And the Danish actor Lars Bloch is unforgettable as the Scottish captain who comes to the aid of the muscle-bound brawling aces Brad Harris and Giancarlo Prete in their final brawl in "Der Tomatenkrieg / The Tomato War" (1975).
Marcello Fondato didn't have a particularly good hand as a director here. He did it better a few years later in the brawling classics "Zwei wie Pech und Schwefel / Two Like Bad Luck" (1974) with Bud Spencer and Terence Hill and "Charleston" (1977) with Bud Spencer solo, in which he had some of the most beautiful brawls in the world History of Italian spanking comedys.
Not quite a successful sex comedy, but the ItaloCinema AllStar line-up is definitely worth seeing!
